I can see where you are coming from. But well, i play a warlock which is considered one of the harder rotations.
Just look it up, Mages seem really simple. I can see the joy of being able to just stick to a 2button + cds rotation and just focus on boss mechanics. Some might like it, most wont. Thats why there are so many classes, just find one you like...

I think op has a point. Blizz is catering to all the hardcore people and whiners...people who where done on heroic cata in about a month and were bored...

Way too much this time, quests, valor gate, rotations...I'm about ready to say f it and go play D3. Why should we pay for something that was so unfinished at release now they are holding 5.1 in our faces...well why not just wait for 5.1 to come out? Yeah I'm disgruntled.

I like looking at the game and what I am killing and now I have to look at the keyboard a lot more....

frost mage former arcane who caved from frost originally to raid and I liked it.

Over the years, I have looked on as wow has become increasingly complicated; however, complicated does not necessarily mean good. I believe the complexity of classes and the complexity of content share a fundamental link. If you have complicated rotations for classes then you must have account for this with easy forgiving content. Conversely, if you have simplistic rotations in your classes you may have much more difficult and unforgiving content.

I believe this illustrates the difference from the wow of the past and the wow of today. Today content is very forgiving outside heroic raids and class rotations are at an all time high in complexity. In the past content was not much less forgiving, yet classes and rotations were much easier to play.

I guess which ever style you like all falls down to opinion I suppose. The purpose of this thread was just to bring this conflict of interest to light. I view myself as a simplistic person so I enjoy my content harder and my class easier.

The days of ret paladins watching their swingtimers are over bro, go play vanilla servers or tbc servers if you want that back.

I actually do not want that back My playing style obviously had changed over the years but I simply never leveled up a new toon to compensate it. Well, it doesn't mind - I just raid LFR as you may see in my signature.

Member of the World of Warcraft community since 2001 =)No more member of the hardcore raiding scene since Wrath - Coliseum.I'm addon author with focus on broker addons. Check out my WoW addons here !

This is a good example of the playerbase not knowing what they actually want.

Individuals know what they want, but there won't be any clear consensus among the group as a whole. It's the same as everything else in life; not everyone is going to be happy. The individuals making up the playerbase know what they want. This is a good example of people wanting different things.

Originally Posted by Shinoashi

He doesn't need a source to know that he pretty much hit the nail on the head.

“What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.” - Christopher Hitchens

I'm absolutely amazed that anyone could say that rotations are complicated. They are at their most simplistic at any time during WoW's timeframe and you want them simplified again?

Now that isn't true.

All the whining about things being so easy, is how classes got harder and did in Cata. The result is more and more complaints of people aren't producing enough. In the end, it makes playing the game less fun.

After the changes to Blood DKs after 5.0.1 for example, the fun I had playing a Blood DK vanished. His rotation got more complicated, and I had to revert to using Kev as a tank again as that's the sub-class I keep up with. The game to me isn't worth the constant class upkeep, and as more classes are added, more so.

From the #1 Cata review on Amazon.com: "Blizzard's greatest misstep was blaming players instead of admitting their mistakes. They've convinced half of the population that the other half are unskilled whiners, causing a permanent rift in the community."

Blizzard's blame game in action:Deleting 6,100+ of Kevyne's posts and threads from the WoW forums.

I do agree with the OP in some way, I did prefer the combat of a few years ago. It's nothing to do with difficulty, though, as so many people in this thread who feel the need to self-affirm their own abilities by putting down others jump to conclude. It's more to do with the feel of combat - today on most classes it's way too button-mashy for my liking. It used to be logical and thoughtful and have a nice flow to it.. now its just spam spam spam.

I would like to point out that having complicated rotations and complicated content may be more harmful than good. It can contribute to much stress to game play and make experiences unenjoyable. I certainly realized this while leveling in MOP, the new continent is so beautiful; however, I spent most of my time with my head down focusing on my rotation. To actually enjoy the scenery I had to take breaks to stop and look around.

Having really complex rotations and really complex content is like trying to donate 200% of your time when you only have 100% to give.

I disagree and I have one of every class. I don't think there's really been a time where rotations have been simpler, on most if not all classes.

in vanilla rotations were a utter joke.
in tbc and wotlk they were still easier, at least for the classes i play, i.e. warrior, rogue, hunter, mage.
if you speak about mechanics like threat or trapping you could be right, but rotations absolutely werent more complicated.

I do agree with the OP in some way, I did prefer the combat of a few years ago. It's nothing to do with difficulty, though, as so many people in this thread who feel the need to self-affirm their own abilities by putting down others jump to conclude. It's more to do with the feel of combat - today on most classes it's way too button-mashy for my liking. It used to be logical and thoughtful and have a nice flow to it.. now its just spam spam spam.

Yep.

I liked how my Blood DK played as it reminded me how I played my paladin in EQ2. He was a tank that required constant hitting, which how it was like in EQ2, where hitting is how to build+keep hate. I was familar with that mechanic and it was easy to jump in and to play him, and his self-healing mechanic made sense. Now in the effort to bring some complexity to a DKs abilities, it now feels foreign and forced.

From the #1 Cata review on Amazon.com: "Blizzard's greatest misstep was blaming players instead of admitting their mistakes. They've convinced half of the population that the other half are unskilled whiners, causing a permanent rift in the community."

Blizzard's blame game in action:Deleting 6,100+ of Kevyne's posts and threads from the WoW forums.

There are no rotations, there are only priorities and abilities that proc. If there was a single class you could play with a rotation, I would play it. I much rather look at my surroundings, watch the participants in the fight, the background and surrounding effects, what's happening beneath my feet...than watch my bars to see which button lights up. Every single class and every single spec is less fun than it was in WotLK. Every single one. No CDs line up, there is no fluidity, they are all clunky and riddled with decisions to make on the fly. Instead of enjoying the gameplay, I get to watch my hotbars like a hawk looking for a shiny button and agonizing over which one to press. I hate the state of priority based system the game has in place now. I can only hope that one day, GC will get fired and the game will take a trend to being more enjoyable.

If you want a simple rotation as Ret and don't care about the dps consequences, you don't use Inquisition.

If the game in this state is hard for you, I suggest you reroll to a simpler class

you seem to have overlooked a flaw in your argument.

While we could play our dps rotation however we want, such as when leveling up, if we get to max level and find our simplifed rotation is doing half the dps of another player of the same class in a raid or dungeon or arena, then we will not be forgiven by other players for lacking in that higher dps, as other players don't care about a persons on situation, they just want clones of the same class.